Press Photos/Adam BirdJackie Kinser and Shawn Walden will manage the new National Storage Center in the former Grand Rapids Technical School, which closed in 1995.

GRAND RAPIDS -- When they first toured the former Grand Rapids Technical School at 1236 Ball Ave. NE, representatives of a self-storage company could see its potential for transformation.

The building that closed its doors in 1995 already was used for storage -- old computers, furniture and other Grand Rapids Public Schools materials filled the former classrooms, Pogoda Cos. Vice President Tom Berlin said.

"It was very, very interesting," he said. "There were classrooms, a welding shop and carpentry shops."

After a total conversion, the 104,000-square-foot building is sleek, clean and unrecognizable as a former school.

Hallways have been repainted.

Pogoda, of Farmington Hills, marks the grand opening of the 420-unit National Storage Center from 4 to 6 p.m. Tuesday.

The building, built in the mid-1960s as a department store, was later used as a library and a school housing vocational programs.

"It's a great adaptive reuse of a building like this," Berlin said.

Maurice Pogoda, owner and president, said his company purchased the building from Grand Rapids Public Schools and started renovations in November. The challenge was "taking a decrepit, old, junky looking building and making it new and clean," he said.

"We took the building and took it back to the bare walls, cleaned up, replaced a good portion of the roof, knocked out classrooms and a shop area, cleaned floors and repainted everything."

The company also converted a former factory in Redmond to a storage facility.

Though this was the first school building Pogoda Cos. renovated, the big box-style structure lent itself well to the conversion, Pogoda said.

"The challenging part here was to make sure we did it like we like to, which is a class A storage facility," he said.

The center rents units ranging from 50 to 300 square feet in a climate-controlled area, most reached from hallways.

Drive-up units were built along the store's perimeter, Pogoda said.

The company may add units, depending on demand, Berlin said.

The building was purchased for $1.1 million from the school district. Pogoda declined to disclose how much was spent on renovations.

National Storage Center also has a location at 533 36th St. SW in Wyoming.